Sen. Obama to speak in Selma next month
MONTGOMERY - Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama will deliver the keynote address next month at the annual commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. Obama, a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois, is seeking the 2008 Democratic nomination for president. Obama is scheduled to speak March 4 at an 11 a.m. service at Selma's Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, the site where the marchers gathered in 1965. The annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee is a celebration of the civil rights movement. The 1965 march led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which allowed blacks to register and vote in the South. Marchers were attacked by state troopers and deputies as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Richardson
WESTON, Fla. (AP) — For the Broward County Democratic chairman, Bill Richardsons presidential campaign has meaning far beyond how well the New Mexico governor fares against better known 2008 rivals.
Richardson represents two important growth targets for the party, said Mitch Ceasar: He is Hispanic and from a Western state once considered solidly Republican.
The challenge will be for him to show not just that hes the Hispanic candidate, but that he can mobilize that base, Ceasar said. His ability to do that will be measured and considered by all candidates in the future.
Before a speech Saturday night at a Broward Democrats dinner, Richard said in an interview with The Associated Press that his Hispanic heritage will be a key asset as he attempts to distinguish himself from other candidates.
Clinton and Obama campaigns exchange verbal fire
CARSON CITY, Nev. Democratic presidential rivals Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama opened their first cross-country skirmish on Wednesday. Clinton went after Obama for comments made by Obama's top Hollywood fundraiser, entertainment mogul David Geffen. Geffen on Tuesday hosted a star-studded Hollywood event that raised $1.3 million for Obamas campaign. He later told The New York Times that Clinton was "incredibly polarizing" and "ambitious" and that nobody believes that former President Bill Clinton has changed, an apparent reference to his womanizing. He also called the Clintons liars, saying: "Everybody in politics lies, but they (the Clintons) do it with such ease, its troubling." Geffen also said the Clinton "machine is going to be very unpleasant and unattractive and effective." Clinton's campaign fired back, accusing Obama of hypocrisy for telling a Nevada audience on Sunday that he opposed "slash and burn" politics even as his top fundraiser attacked the Clintons.
Former chairman endorses Obama
COLUMBIA - A former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party said Monday he would throw his support behind presidential hopeful Barack Obama. "I see in Barack Obama ... the same magnetism I saw in Bill Clinton," said Dick Harpootlian, who met with the Illinois senator during his first campaign visit to this early voting state Friday. Harpootlian's announcement came as New York Sen. Hillary Clinton made her first campaign trek through South Carolina. Harpootlian, who has in the past called Clinton a polarizing political figure, downplayed his comments Monday and said she or any of the Democratic candidates would make a fine president. But he said Obama was the embodiment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream that people be judged by their character, not their skin color.
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